The Wonder of Consciousness

by Langsam, Harold L.

• ISBN13: 9780262015851
• ISBN10: 0262015854
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-07-29
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

Consciousness is a wonderful thing. But if we are fully to appreciate the wonder of consciousness, we need to articulate what it is about consciousness that makes it such an interesting and important phenomenon to us. In this book, Harold Langsam argues that consciousness is intelligible--that there are substantive facts about consciousness that can be known a priori--and that it is the intelligibility of consciousness that is the source of its wonder. Langsam first examines the way certain features of some of our conscious states intelligibly relate us to features of the world of which we are conscious. Consciousness is radically different from everything else in the world, and yet it brings us into intimate connection with the things of the world. Langsam then examines the causal powers of some of our conscious states. Some of these causal powers are determined in an intelligible way by the categorical natures of their conscious states: if you know what consciousness is, then you can also know (by the mere exercise of your intelligence) some of what consciousness does. Langsam's intent is to get the philosophy of mind away from the endless and distracting debates about whether consciousness is physical or not. He shows that there are substantive things that we can discover about consciousness merely through philosophical reflection. The philosopher who takes this approach is not ignoring the empirical facts; he is reflecting on these facts to discover further, nonempirical facts.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Wonder and Intelligibility	p. 1
Intelligibility and Philosophy	p. 5
The Distraction of (Reductive) Physicalism	p. 10
How to Ignore Physicalism	p. 16
The Intelligibility of Consciousness: A First Step	p. 24
The Intelligibility of Consciousness I: How Experience Relates Us to the World	p. 29
The Intrinsic Nature of Experience	p. 29
The Intelligible Relations between Observable Properties and Phenomenal Properties	p. 38
How Observable Properties Intelligible Explain Phenomenal Properties	p. 53
How Observable Properties Are Intelligibly Similar to Phenomenal Properties	p. 61
How Consciousness Reveals the External World to Us: A First Step	p. 65
The Intelligibility of Consciousness II: The Causal Powers of Conscious States	p. 71
The Idea of Intelligible Causation	p. 71
Motivating the Idea of Intelligible Causation	p. 75
The Intelligible Causal Powers of Experiences	p. 85
The Intelligible Causal Powers of Beliefs: Inference	p. 99
The Intelligible Causal Powers of Rational Intuitions: Reflection	p. 103
Intelligible Causation and Introspections	p. 106
The Importance of Consciousness I: Belief, Rationality, and Knowledge	p. 111
Consciousness and Rationality	p. 111
Rationality and Reasoning	p. 116
Some Applications of the Theory of Rationality	p. 118
Two Kinds of Rationality	p. 122
Justification, Rationality, and Intelligible Causation	p. 129
The Unity of Knowledge	p. 135
The Importance of Consciousness II: Desire, Feeling, and Value	p. 141
Desire, Rational Desire, and Value	p. 141
Two Kinds of Rational Desires	p. 147
Bodily Sensations: Pleasures and Pains	p. 156
Feelings	p. 166
Ideal Desires: Consciousness and Value	p. 179
The Wonder of Consciousness: Conclusions	p. 185
Notes	p. 189
References	p. 215
Index	p. 227
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